MOUSE ABOUT THE HOUSE (27 january 2004)
It all started a few months ago. The family found holes in their bread.
In the beginning the holes were explained away: they must have been caused by the machine that the baker used to slice the bread.
But one night while I was in the living-room, I heard strange sounds coming from the kitchen. When I went to have a look, I saw a little grey mouse running on the kitchen sink.
If you've read earlier pages of this weblog, you may know that the family have a cat called Siep. So I thought "Why not put Siep on the sink?"
I lifted Siep and put her on the sink. But I forgot that Siep had been trained not to get on the table (or the kitchen sink). Soon it became clear how well we had trained her: hardly had she set foot on the sink when she became very nervous and only wanted to get down.
Well, the mouse is still with us. I never knew mice are fond of fat. The dripping of the electric grill attracted him like a icecream attracts children. A little Chinese cup filled with lard I had left in the kitchen appeared to be be half empty and showed marks left by tiny teeth.
Poison is out of the question: we are happy that Siep still has her natural appetite for mice, and we don't want her poisoned by a dead mouse.
"Buy a trap", you may suggest. Have you ever seen what a mouse looks like that has been caught in it? Not a very pleasant sight! We don't want to lose the sympathy of our daughters.
All we can do is put beans, flour, spaghetti, etc, in cans and boxes and hope our grey little friend will leave of his own will.
